BANK DEFRAUDED

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 November 1929, Page 11

BANK DEFRAUDED

rpilE 'Old Lady of Threadneedle Street (the Bank of England) must still blush—and with reason —over a few pages in her history. They are the pages containing the record of a great fraud whereby a quartet of American crooks, by an audacious campaign of forgery, despoiled her of more than £IOO,OOO. And the amount might have been even higher if a little mistake — the sort of trifling mistake which has brought so many criminals to the dock —had not awakened the Old Lady to the way her vaults Avere being pillaged. It ail happened a long time ago, in 1873. But the Bank of England, says Mr George Dilnot, in his introduction to the A’olume dealing Avith “The Bank of England Forgery,” in the Famous Trials series, rCA T iewed in “T.P.’s Weekly,” “still has cold shudders dow'ii the spine at the recollection pf the affair.” The bank, he adds, coldly and loftily refused to verify one of the figures involved in the fraud. It was no doubt necessary to the exaet presentation of the case. But the real interest in his reconstruction of the fraud is not in the amounts obtained by a masterly series of forgeries, but in the human figures, the forgers. There Avere three disciples: George BidAvell, his brother Austin, and George Maedonnell. The oldest, George BidAvell, was only in the early thirties, but aIT three Avere already knoivn to the police as among the retinue of a notorious American forger, Engles. The elder BidAvell and Maedonnell had all the tricks of the forger at their finger tips Avhen they came over to Europe, and. by way of a preliminary canter, made a nice little haul by means of forged letters of introduction and credit. They had one or tvA-o bad frights and narrow escapes during the campaign, and a subsequent trip to Brazil, but they got home with Avellliried pockets. Emboldened by this success the forgers were very ready to take the chance offered AA'hen a confiding London tailor gaA T e Austin BidAA'ell and Maedonnell an introduction (under the assumed names by Avhieh he kneAV them, as wealthy American customers) to. the 'Burlington Gardens branch of the

£IOO,OOO CLEARED

Bank of England. BidAvell declared after that they had then no idea of using the account for fraudulent purposes; but of the opportunity Avas born the plan which eventually brought them to the Old Bailey. There is no room to describe here the complicated operations Avhereby the Bank of England, by means of 94 forged bills of exchange, Avas robbed, in little more than a month, of more than £IOO,OOO. Some knoAvledge of finance and banking methods is necessary to appreciate the daring scheme Avhieh originated AA'ith “a great discovery” by iMacdonnell. The discovery Avas that a bill draAvn on the London and Westminster Bank Avhieh Masdonncll had purchased from a certain Moses Ezekiel in Rotterdam Avas cashed at. the Bank in London Avithout. being sent to the acceptor for .verification. “In other AA'ords, at that time a bill of exchange bearing the acceptance of a reputable firm would be discounted by a bank Avithout inquiry. A cunningly forged acceptance, therefore, would pass the scrutiny of the bank and the fraud could not be diseoA’ered until the bill fell due.”

The essence .of the plot Avhieh avas formulated in consequence of that diseovery, as explained by Mr Dilnot, Avas this: —

“Under pretence of extensive business operations . . . ‘Warren’ (avlio Avas Austin BidAvell) Avas to pass a series of forged bills of exchange through his Bank of England account. To aid in the business illusion a ‘Mr C. .1. Horton,’ also an American business man, AA r as created, and opened an account at the Continental Bank. ‘Mr Warren’s’ affairs Avere to necessitate large payments to ‘Mr Horton.’ Both these gentlemen were, in fact, Austin BidAvell. As the money reached the Continental Bank it. Avas to be draAvn out in Bank of England notes, Avhieh. Avere to be changed into gold, and later' again into notes, and finally into United States bonds, so that the money that ultimately came into the possession of the forgers' AA’ould be unidentifiable as the proceeds of the fraud.” With immense thoroughness the necessary forms and stamps were forg-

SENSATIONAL SWINDLE RECALLED

ed. Then the fourth member of the quartet, a young man known as Noyes, was imported to act as catspaw,. to collect the money and to provide a line of retreat. All went according to plan; so well, that Macdonnell was kept hard at work making forged bills. Perhaps the very easiness of the game made the forgers a little careless. It was a trifle that revealed the swindle —and set them scattering for safety. From two forged bills purporting to be accepted by a financier named Blydenstein the date of sighting had been omitted. As mere formality, the bank manager sent them to Mr Blydenstein’s office to be put in order —and the game was up!

Noyes was at once arrested —while Bid well was watching him round the corner. George Bidwell and Macdonnell went to .St. Leonards —accompanied by their girls —and demanded in their lodgings a big lire, in which they burned, much of. the evidence. Then they fled. But they really had been getting careless. In Macdonnell\s lodgings the police found blotting .paper with impressions from forged bills. George Bidwell, in his flight, which makes as exciting reading as you will find in any detective story, got to Ireland, where' he posed as a Bussian. But in one hotel he left his scarf, with his real initials on it, and in another left behind a collar marked G,B. He was caught in Edinburgh, where he was passing as a German medical student. Macdonnell got to New York, where he was arrested—but not before a corrupt detective had relieved him of some of the booty. Austin Bidwell was caught in Cuba. The quartet met again in Old Bailey, where the honour of the Old Lady was avenged—by sentences on all four of penal servitude for life.

George Bidwell was released; the others served about 20 years, “Except in the case of Noyes, ” says Mr Dilnot, “I c-an find ,no indication of their subsequent lives. Noyes was a hardened old man when I met him some years before the war, and there is no reason to doubt hi 3 assertion that he had lived honestly since his release.”